Fire & Ice
by Paralax
Summary: The beginnings of a relationship. Oneshot. Rated T for freezing rivers, light Sonic/Blaze, and purple sleeping bags. Reviews are greatly appreciated.


Sonic hated snow.

He hated how cold and wet snow made everything. He hated how he couldn't run in the snow. He hated having to wear layer after layer of clothing so he wouldn't freeze to death. But sometimes you had to shut up and put up with it. After all, no one said that life was easy, and complaining all the time didn't help much.

Of course, having a friend who could control fire also helped.

Sonic kept as close to Blaze as he could, taking in the warmth that radiated from her. In recent months, Blaze had gained much more control over her unique ability, allowing it to become a sort of built-in Swiss-Army knife. One of the newer things she could do was radiate heat. So, when Sonic and Blaze realized they had to cross part of the Northern Tundra to get back home in a reasonable amount of time, they came to an agreement: Sonic would carry the equipment, and Blaze would keep them warm.

And so they walked. Sonic had tried running through the snow and ice-covered environment, but found that he had almost no traction, meaning that any snow drift more than a few inches high became a serious hazard to him. Blaze had a similar problem; she could move faster using her fire, but if she ran over a frozen lake – more common than not in this section of the Tundra – she would melt right through. This meant that a distance that would have taken them less than an hour to cross under normal circumstances would take them almost two days. Frustrating, but it was the quickest way that allowed them to stay under the radar.

Sonic pulled out a map of the region, and showed it to Blaze. "I think we're somewhere over here." He drew a small circle with his finger.

"Is that a lake?" She asked, pointing to a mark in the map within the circle Sonic drew.

Sonic took the map back. "Looks like it. Better turn down the heat for a bit."

"Alright. Give me my coat, then."

Sonic passed it to her, feeling the warmth from her dissipate as she did. He sighed, the chill of the icy wind biting at his face. "Better keep moving."

"How are we going to know if we are at the lake? And whether the ice is thick enough to cross or not?"

"Relax, Blaze. I'm sure the ice is thick enough to cross. And because of that, it wouldn't matter whether we're on the lake or not."

He checked his watch. "It's getting close to sunset." He looked up at the overcast sky, same as it had been all day. "At least I think it is. We should probably look for a place to set up camp for the night."

Blaze studied the map. "There is a small mountain range that follows the lake. There might be caves that we could use as shelter for the night.

"Sounds good. Let's hurry up; I don't want to be walking around in a blizzard in the dark."

They continued, and sure enough Sonic could see the mountains, casting a slightly darker shade of gray against the sky. "Eh, that's still a ways away."

"We'll be fine. I am almost positive we're over the lake now, so we just need to be careful and watch our-"

There was a sharp _Crack!_, and Blaze vanished beneath the knee-deep snow.

"Blaze!" Sonic cleared away as much of the snow as he could. He found a hole in the ice, which was only a couple of inches thick, but no Blaze.

_She's under the ice,_ he thought, backing away from the hole slowly. He looked around. It was subtle, but there was a slight change in the height of the snow around him, causing a shadow that made an outline of the lake. He quickly scampered out of the lake and back onto solid ground. What was he going to do? What _could _he do? He saw a glowing patch under the snow a few hundred meters away from where Blaze disappeared. The patch was slowly moving away from him, and Sonic realized that Blaze was trying to heat her way through the ice. Also, the fact that she was moving meant that this was not a lake, but a river. She was moving downstream, and going to run out of oxygen real fast.

Sonic acted quickly. He followed the river, getting himself ahead of her. Throwing his pack on the snow, he quickly spin-dashed against the ice, rebounding before the hole he created pulled him into the freezing river. When he landed, he laid himself flat against the ice, distributing his weight to lower the chances of the ice cracking underneath him.

_Now the fun part_, he thought. He undressed one of his arms and stuck his hand into the icy water. _Damn, that's cold_. He winced in pain as he watched the glowing patch move closer – and become dimmer. The patch went disappeared just as it reached him, and he felt something brush against his hand. He quickly grabbed it, and pulled out a soaking, freezing, unconscious, but breathing Blaze.

Sonic quickly dried his arm, redressed it, and carried Blaze to the shore of the lake. He put on his pack, and, Blaze in his arms, ran as fast as his heavy snow boots would allow.. The ice was cracking with each step he took, but that only propelled him to move faster. He jumped onto the shore of the river, skidding to a stop and sinking into the snow. The river was very wide, and he had crossed over to the side with the mountains. A cave entrance greeted him about a kilometer downriver, and he quickly entered it and set Blaze down. The cave was small, just large enough to comfortably house two people and a fire for the night.

Dropping the equipment, Sonic realized that he had a new problem on his hands: he didn't have a source of heat. Trees were very rare in tundras, and although he had enough sense to pack some wood before they left, they had both counted on the availability of Blaze's abilities to keep themselves warm and start fires. Since she was both unconscious and cold, she wouldn't be able to do this. He pulled out the wood, which was slightly damp, set it up, and scanned the cave floor. Small rocks littered the cave floor.

Grabbing two rocks that were both the size of his palm, he started to rub them together furiously, generating a shower of sparks. It was a few seconds before the wood caught, but when it did, it didn't waste any time. In minutes, Sonic had a fire going. He set Blaze next to the fire. The flames responded by leaning towards her, which Sonic took as a good sign; Blaze had to still be alive for her powers to work. But she was soaking wet and freezing cold, and if neither problem was solved soon... Sonic didn't want to think about that.

She needed to dry off and warm up. He pulled out her sleeping bag, a purple mass of insulation. This would keep her warm, but if it got too wet it wouldn't do her any good. He needed to get her dry first, which meant removing all the stuff from her that was wet.

Sonic exhaled. He was mature enough to do this. This wasn't a big deal. Just saving a friend's life. So modesty be damned if it stood in his way of that. He quickly removed the layers of clothing keeping her wet and cold, setting them near the fire to dry. Soon Blaze lay before him, wearing only her undergarments. Blushing, he looked away and, in one fluid motion, removed the last layers of cloth, wrapped her in a towel, and began to dry her. He removed as much water as he could, and put her in her sleeping bag.

He allowed himself to look at her. Her head stuck out of the sleeping bag, and it looked like she was only resting. She'd warm up, get better, and they'd be on there way. He got out his own sleeping bag and some food, removed his own soaked clothing, changed into a dry pair of shorts, and silently ate as he watched the blizzard.

After a few minutes, Blaze still hadn't awoken. He got out of his sleeping bag, put a hand to her face. She was still cold. The fire wasn't doing enough; she needed more heat to recover.

Sonic emptied his pack on the cave floor, looking for another possible source of heat. He couldn't find anything. The only body of warmth, excluding Blaze, was the fire, and he couldn't make that any bigger. A gust of wind blew into the cave, and he shivered, putting his hands under his armpits and crawling back under the sleeping bag. There wasn't anything else he could use to warm her.

Except himself.

The realization came over him like a sack of bricks. Her body wasn't generating enough heat to sustain herself. If he got in the sleeping bag as well, he would warm her up and get her back to normal.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly climbed in the bag, facing away from her. He curled up and tried to think about something, anything other than the fact that there was beautiful, naked woman right next to him. Sonic fell asleep, dreaming about chili dogs and warm, sunny days back home.

* * *

It was so _cold_.

A shiver reverberated through Blaze as she woke up. And another. And another. She was shivering uncontrollably. She tried to warm herself, igniting the fire that eternally burned within her. She felt a little bit of warmth return to her, enough to stop the shivers for a while, but it was not enough. There was a fire crackling merrily a few feet away. She reached out to it, fingers outstretched. The flame leaned to her, and shrank at the sudden loss of heat. Warmth filled every crevice in her body, and she breathed a sigh of content.

Blaze shifted in her sleeping bag, and felt something poke her in the back. She reached behind herself to move whatever it was out of the way, and grunted in pain as her hand was stabbed by something. She turned around and found blue quills obscuring most of her vision. _Wait, why is Sonic...?_

Then she realized her lack of clothes.

She shrieked. Sonic awoke with a start. Realizing what had happened, he shot out of the bag and backed away. He was only wearing a set of thermal underwear. Blaze covered herself with the bag, blushing and looking furious. "Wait, Blaze, let me explain," Sonic started.

"What. The. Hell. Were. You. DOING!"

"Blaze, that wasn't what it looked like."

"I know very well what it looked like! Do you think I'm some stupid, spoiled, royal brat? Sonic, I knew you could be a little brash sometimes, but seriously? Do you have any idea-"

"You were dying!" Sonic cut in.

Blaze stopped mid-sentence. "I was- What?"

"You fell through the ice, remember?"

Memories came back to Blaze. Of talking to Sonic, then feeling the ice give way. Of being surrounded by darkness and unable to breathe. Of trying to melt the ice above her, but feeling the oppressive coldness wrap around her, sapping her of her powers.

She realized what had happened. "So I would have died."

"You were already a little hypothermic when I got us into the cave. So I did what I thought would save you. Keeping you close to the fire wasn't working, and I didn't want to just throw you into the fire. Now you're alive and well."

"And naked." Her blush grew deeper as a thought occurred to her. "Sonic, did you..."

"I didn't look."

"Are you sure?"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Come on, Blaze, we're both mature. You're making this a bigger deal than it actually is. I saved you. Sure, my method was a little... immodest, but it was the only thing I could do. Would you rather I have just let you on the cave floor and cover you with a blanket?"

Blaze eyed him for a moment, then smiled. "No. I guess you're right. Thank you."

"You're welcome." A pause. "I guess I'll be going to sleep. Our stuff is by the fire if you need anything." He pulled off a pair of pants that was still damp. "Do y'think you could...?"

"Give me that." She grabbed the pants with one hand and heated it. Steam rose from them as they dried. She quickly handed them back. "Here."

"Thanks." He slipped the pants on, then unrolled and crawled into his sleeping bag. "G'night."

"Good night." She turned around and went to sleep.

When she was sure Sonic was asleep, she crawled out of the sleeping bag and wrapped it around her in a sort of makeshift towel. Using one hand to hold it up, she dried and warmed some of her clothes and put them on. She dropped the sleeping bag and watched Sonic.

He cared about her. There was no questioning it. So she was surprised to find out how... alright she was with the fact that he was sleeping next to her. Blaze felt a little relieved that Sonic didn't let modesty get in the way of saving her life.

But he was also attracted to her; she could see it him, however subtle it was. And being a princess, and an attractive one at that, she was used to the fact that she was the object of many a man's fantasies.

With Sonic, however, she felt herself returning some of that affection to him. He almost died in saving her, she guessed, risking himself on the ice. He was brave and courageous and kind. She liked that in a guy.

Blaze got back into the sleeping bag and felt dirt rubbing against her fur. Sonic had ripped the bag when he jumped out of it, rendering it useless. But her powers were returning to her, so she could curl up on top of it and sleep just fine.

Or...

Blaze got out of her sleeping bag and walked over to Sonic's. Careful so not as to wake him, she wriggled herself into his, curling up next to him. A little reward for saving her life.

Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.


End file.
